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UNCASVILLE, CONNECTICUT — They certainly made it exciting, but the Connecticut Sun defeated the Dallas Wings, 74-72, after Alyssa Thomas hit the go-ahead layup with under a minute to play and stripped a Maddy Siegrist layup attempt for the win. The victory came despite the Sun blowing a double-digit second-half lead, and missing an onslaught of free throws in the closing minutes.
“We made it a little stressful for you guys tonight,” Rachel Banham said to the raucous Mohegan Sun crowd moments after the game. “I was stressed, too.” Head coach Stephanie White credited the team’s defensive resilience down the stretch even when shots weren’t falling. “We made some tough defensive plays down the stretch that saved the game for us,” White said.
The Sun started the game slow, falling behind by double digits in the first quarter, just as they have several times this season. But like they have all year, they responded, with the bench providing a lift to close the first period and Thomas carrying the load with her playmaking the rest of the way.
Brionna Jones, Alyssa Thomas lead the way
Thomas flirted with a triple-double, finishing the night with 15 points, 14 assists, nine rebounds and two steals, while Brionna Jones, still working her way to full-strength after suffering an Achilles rupture last summer, exploded for a season-high 22 points on 10-for-14 shooting.
“We missed her,” Thomas said of Jones. “Especially for these games. She’s just a great inside presence. She can handle the big post players, push them out. Little by little, she’s going to come back into her own, and just really happy to see her out there.” Jones was the recipient of more than a couple of Thomas passes for midrange jumpers. “I mean, they just kept leaving her,” Thomas said of the Wings’ defense, which tended to over help and leave Jones wide open. “They just kept letting her have her jump shot.”
Jones, meanwhile, said she’s feeling increasingly comfortable hitting from the midrange, after making it a priority to improve her range as she recovered from her Achilles tear. “I’ve been working on it all offseason, just getting in the gym, getting shots up,” Jones said. “It’s something I definitely wanted to come in this year, and be able to bring my shot more and not just have to stay in the post all the time. That was definitely a focus.”
DiJoinai Carrington handles Arike Ogunbowale well
The Wings came into the game with a 3-2 record, having won two-straight games powered by Arike Ogunbowale, who entered the night as one of the league’s leading scorers with 28.8 points per game
So, a defensive priority was to keep Ogunbowale under wraps, and DiJonai Carrington, who is typically tasked with guarding the opposing team’s best guard, was up to the challenge. “Nai’s been terrific defensively all season long,” head coach Stephanie White said. On Friday night, Carrington held Ogunbowale to 21 points on 8-for-21 shooting. “You’re not going to stop a player like Arike,” White said. “The thing that you want to try to do is make every shot tough, and then you’ve got to live with those shots.”
With the win, Connecticut tops the standings with a 7-0 record
Despite the perfect start, White said the team remains unsatisfied, knowing that they aren’t yet playing their best basketball. They’ve yet to face last year’s Finals teams—the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty—and have won four of their games by less than five points, including several close wins against opponents that rank toward the bottom of the standings, like the Mystics and Fever. So, there’s no celebrating happening in Uncasville.
“We are 7-0 and sometimes in the locker room after games it feels like we’re 0-7,” White said. “The expectation is just really high, the expectation for success, and knowing, I think that we’re not playing our best basketball, we’re leaving a lot on the table, so to speak. Our team is very business-like. We’ve got a core group of professionals who want to be perfect.”
Still, every other team in the league has suffered at least two losses already, and despite the Sun continuing to rise in the standings, national discourse around the team remains quiet. “It’s the usual story here in Connecticut. We’ve made it to how many consecutive playoffs?” Thomas said when asked about if she felt the team was overlooked despite the hot start. “And people still underestimate us. It doesn’t change anything.”